Category: farm

The 3 Amigos go exploring

On By stefrobrtsIn farmLeave a comment

I let the boys out to check out their new pasture today. Do you think we have room for three alpacas around here?

Yeah, it’s a pretty big pasture (and that’s just half of it).

The girls from our 4H club named them. Sebastian is the leader, and he headed out to explore the limits of his new kingdom.

While Red and Fredrico headed down to do some grazing by the trees. 

After he’d checked out the whole place Sebastian came back and got the other two, and took them on a tour of what he’d found, and they all wandered all over the pasture (with Navi barking at them from the house the whole way). When it started getting dark I went out and called them in with a grain bucket, and gave them some treats once they were back in the paddock. I locked them in for the night so they would be safe and dry.

Super nice Alpacas!

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Alpaca Headshots

On By stefrobrtsIn farm1 Comment

I went out this morning to give them some more hay, and a bit of grain to help start putting some weight back on them. They came right up to me and wanted to sniff noses, and don’t mind being touched at all, so I gave them scratches on the neck. It’s hard to get through all that dirty wool, and the wool is full of blackberry thorns. But they are very friendly, obviously they had a lot of attention before their last home fell apart. They didn’t even fight and spit over the grain, which would be typical, they just took turns gobbling it up.

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‘Packys

On By stefrobrtsIn 4H, farm2 Comments
Trent, Jamie, and Sharon helping the alpacas settle in to their new digs.

Well, the alpacas have arrived. They are actually very nice. They need some time to rest and recover. They badly need to be sheared but that can’t happen until spring, so they’ll just have to tough it out. Right now they have shelter, hay, fresh water, and we’ll get them started on some food to put the pounds back on. They were easy to catch and handle, and allowed quite a bit of body handling. I’m certain these guys will find themselves in good 4H homes before too long.

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Around the yard – new visitors coming

On By stefrobrtsIn farm, llamas2 Comments

First off, the latest on the neighbor’s farm. It was up for sale earlier this winter, and closed in early December for $158k, which was a lot less than they were asking (I think they started at $215). It has 11 acres, a destroyed mobile home (literally just a heap of rubbish), an old mobile home people were living in, and a big old completely un-charming, falling-apart barn. Also beautiful pastures (or will be if they are cared for), and tall trees.

 I don’t envy the folks who took this project on. The barn was full of garbage when we walked through it when it first went up for sale, and is in sad shape inside. But the folks who bought it have been working on it, hauling away trailer loads of debris. You can see where there are piles of stuff outside the barn now. I don’t know if they are cleaning it up to try and save what’s still good, or just slowly taking it apart. The other day I saw a backhoe show up and thought that was the end of the barn but the backhoe went away and the barn is still there. I am hoping they are going to keep it as a horse property, but if it gets split up and developed that’s ok too. The minimum lot size out here is 5 acres (ours is 3, but they’ve changed the rules since then), so the worst we would have is two new neighbors on that side.

My garden looks like a mess, but I can see things actually getting more organized. I’m going to hoe the weeds under and clean the coop this weekend and put the chicken poo on the beds, so it has time to ‘cool off’ before planting time. Then I’ll lay straw on top of that, and I have all the old straw out of the shelter area where the sheep and pig was last year, which should be good compost too as it breaks down. I also have lots of shredded bark to re-do the paths. I see a lot of shoveling in my future!

The shelter has been reconfigured yet again to separate it from the garden, because a friend called me up and asked if I could take three alpacas. She organizes llama rescue, and got a call that three ‘packys had been abandoned when their house was foreclosed on. Since she’s full up, but I have two acres and no animals, I couldn’t say no. So one of the other 4H families came over and helped me remodel the shelter (moving around boards that were already there) and we have a shelter and paddock ready for livestock again. This morning I spread clean straw, and hung a hay feeder. Someone else brought hay, and another 4H family has a trailer and will go help pick them up. 4H people are the best – they hear about animals in need and they just say ‘how can I help’!

(It’s built on hill, which is why it has that ‘everything is askew’ look –  it’s actually all quite plumb)

This should be a nice cozy retreat from the weather. They should be in their new home this afternoon.

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Yesterday it rained

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, farm, jack, navi1 Comment

..and rained and rained and rained. I think it’s the most water I’ve seen in the field for a long time. When I said swale in the front field flooded when it rains, this is what I’m talking about.

I walked around the field a bit to judge what parts actually had standing water, vs what parts might be ok to have livestock on during a deluge. In addition to my miniature horse dreams, I’d still kind of like to have a flock of sheep again someday. They can’t be running around on the wet part of the pasture though!

The swale is not only about 30ft wide, but it all ended up in a 40 x 60 ft pond at the bottom of the field (which was so deep I thought Navi was going to have to swim) by the road. I took the dogs out and they had a great time splashing around and playing fetch in the pond, then we came back up to hang out in the shelter and watch the rain come down.

That roar is the rain on the metal shelter roof. It was LOUD!

Thoughts about horses

On By stefrobrtsIn family, farm2 Comments

Warning – exceedingly long, meandering post ahead! Since this is my journal, sometimes I like to write down my thoughts so someday I can look back on them, and see just what the heck I was thinking.

Since I was a little girl, I have loved horses. Don’t most little girls? I read books about them, drew pictures of them, collected Breyer horses, and in general obsessed about them, to the point where in 5th grade my teachers told me I couldn’t write anymore stories about horses! My parents even had the supremely bad idea that they would get me a pony when I was little, and took me to test ride a friend’s little shetland pony, which I fell off of, prompting my overprotective mom to forbid any pursuit of my horse interest again as too dangerous.

I still have mixed feelings about this. Like, if I had somehow gotten access to horses and learned to ride at that age, it would have been wonderful, and a skill I would have enjoyed my whole life, instead of merely longing to be involved in horses from the sidelines. But my parents were not the sort of attentive folks who could have taken me to riding lessons, nor could they have afforded it. I don’t know what they were thinking when we went to check out the pony – we lived on a small lot in the suburbs. Maybe they figured it could stay on my grandparents larger lot. At the time we were unincorporated, and there was a horse living right down the street from us, so it’s not too crazy an idea, but for them to have taken care of a horse? They couldn’t take care of themselves, their children or their dogs, a horse would have been a disaster. But I’m sure their hearts were in the right place. Actually, I’m sure Dad’s heart was in the right place, because I would just about bet it was all his idea, and Mom went along right up to the point where I fell off. For a long time I couldn’t help but blame myself for missing my only chance to have a horse by being too clumsy to stay on!

I never got closer to a horse than petting one over the fence, until i took a trail ride with the outdoor club in college. Then nothing again for a long time. I have friends with horses, but they never actually ride them, they are just pets. A couple years ago I finally took the leap to get involved, and took lessons for about 6 months until my teacher quit and moved to another barn. It was fun because I really liked my teacher, there were some nice calm lesson horses, and the stables was literally around the corner, with a big covered arena to work in. She let me stay as long as I wanted and only charged me for the half hour, and sometimes I’d be there for two hours, just hanging out and talking and riding around the arena. I finally had my fix to my horsey longings, and I looked forward to my lessons every week.  I even went in on the weekend to help her out and muck out the stalls. Yes, I am so horse obsessed that I enjoyed mucking out the stalls!

I learned some important things about horses. They’re big – bigger than you think until you’re up close to them, or on top of them. Riding is a lot higher up than it seems – and yes, I did fall off to test that distance. Horses can be unpredictable and spook and test your balance and ability to stay on them. They can also have fun horsey personalities that test your balance and ability to stay on them 🙂 But they are also wonderful, and warm and there’s something really amazing about sitting on one, even just sitting still and having that connection with this huge animal.I enjoyed getting to lessons early and brushing the horses out, and if the horse I rode was already brushed out or working in the arena, I’d go brush out some other horse. It’s just fun to be with a horse.

The real downside is that everyone I know who is involved in horses has stories to tell about horrible accidents they’ve had with them. After my riding teacher moved I hadn’t heard from her in awhile so I got in touch and found out a horse at the new barn had tripped over his own feet while she was riding around the arena and fell on her, crushing her leg and leaving her laid up for months. Another friend’s horse got spooked by someone using a leaf blower, and he spun around and kicked her in the stomach, resulting in emergency surgery. Another friend had been kicked in the jaw and had permanent scars from having her jaw wired shut while it healed. It seemed everyone I talked to about horses had a story like that, but they were all very upbeat about it. It happens, they would say. It’s not the horses fault. I did something to cause it, I should have known better, I should have seen that coming. Getting seriously injured or being hospitalized or bedridden for a few weeks or months could be financially devastating. I decided riding horses was fun, but not worth the risk to our family and all we’ve worked so hard for. I sold my riding boots and helmet, and wrote off horses forever.

Well, sort of.

I still have that longing for a horse of my own. It’s the future I saw when we bought our three acres of beautiful pasture. I’ve had llamas, goats, and sheep, but I still have that itch for a horse. Of course, there’s another thing I didn’t see when we bought our acreage, and that is that it is very wet. Part of the main pasture is unusable all winter because the swale runs through and floods it. The rest of it gets muddy easily. Even the sheep made muddy paths in the pasture during the rains last spring. A big horse would destroy it. I’ve seen my friend’s horses beat the path to the barn into such a swamp of mud that they sink in it up to their knees. I can’t have that. Without thousands of dollars in investment in making a proper winter yard for them, I don’t think I could keep horses here.

Not a big horse anyway…

This is my friend’s miniature horse.

She is a neat size. Standing next to her I can comfortably lay my hand on her back. She is a rescue. Who could have abandoned such a beautiful girl?

My friend warned me she can have a pony attitude, but I think she’s just cute as can be. I went over to visit her a couple times and give her scratches. I think this might be the perfect size horse for me. Unlikely to seriously hurt anyone. Small enough she wouldn’t turn our pastures to mud pits. Less horse to feed. Could be happy with the small shelter we built for the llamas. Just as much personality as the big horses.

What can you do with a miniature horse? How about this?

It’s all just dreams right now, maybe someday I’ll finally have a horse of my own. I just wasn’t sure how until I met a miniature horse. Now that sounds like a good idea for the future. Something to work towards. Until then at least I can go visit my friend’s horse and enjoy her company.

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A day at the livestock auction

On By stefrobrtsIn 2010chicks, chickens, farm4 Comments

I had accumulated quite a few extra roosters who had worn out their welcome,a nd I decided to try a different way to get rid of them. I packed them up and my friend Martha joined me for a day at Woody’s Auction in Woodland, WA – a genuine livestock/farm auction. No pictures for this post, pictures aren’t allowed at the auction.

Some poultry people I’ve talked to had mentioned the auction to me, and I figured it was worth a try. It is just outside of Woodland on Cedar Creek Road, and looks like it has been there forever. The buildings look like they could fall down on your head. We arrived and parked in the field/parking lot and wandered up to check the place out to start with. Outside appeared to be like a flea market, or a garage sale, just junk of all sorts laid out on the ground. Then we came to plants and trees, and they were actively auctioning some of that stuff off to folks sitting on plastic chairs under a vinyl carport. We continued towards the buildings where we could hear crowing.

I had been told to bring my poultry at about 10:30 and they would put them in a cage, and then hang around for the auction at noon. We walked through and looked at the chickens, ducks, geese, doves, phesants, and rabbits already awaiting auction – there were a LOT. More than I expected! When we asked about bringing mine up the guy showed us where to go, but said he was all out of cages. So my birds were left stuck in their carriers until auction time. I had my big black roo in a small cardboard box and I felt sorry for him because he couldn’t even turn around, but it couldn’t be helped. Our Lot # was 80! That tells you how many were ahead of us.

We walked around the sale barn and peered into the dark stalls at the goats, sheep and pigs. This was a small livestock auction, they do horses and cows on another day. There were some goats that looked awfully skinny, though there was a cute ewe with two little lambs at her side which was pretty tempting. The weaner pigs were cute little guys. After having a look around we went into the auction ring and had a seat on the bleachers and waited. We ran into some folks we knew, like the chicken lady from the feed store, and passed the time chatting.

Finally, it got to be time to start the auction. They started out with 20-some bags of red potatoes. Then came some bags of animal bedding, and a straw bale, then a seemingly endless supply of fresh eggs by the dozens. Finally they got to animals. I had my eye on a couple buff orpington hens, but they way they do it is that if the lot is for 4 hens, you bid on the price of one hen, then you buy all four in the lot – so it’s a ‘by the head’ price. The hens went for $12 each, which is a fair price, about what I would expect to pay on CL, except there I’d have at least a chance to find out more about them – here all I could tell is what I knew by looking at them.

Some of the animals were sickly looking, plucked, skinny, but the majority looked just fine. Most of the  poultry was young roosters, people were bringing them in to get rid of them because they were harassing their hens and eating them out of house and home – same as me. Big roosters went for about $9 – small for around $5. Roosters at the beginning of the auction went for more than ones at the end. Most went to an Asian couple who were buying most of the roosters and ducks, I’m guessing they have a restaurant. Everyone there seemed to know them.

There were probably 100 people bidding. People were buying up animals, some asked him to break up lots so they could buy just a single rabbit as a pet and they did, and the auction runner handed the kids their rabbit to sit up in the bleachers and hold.

After a long time my lots came up. The auction runner pulled my big black cochin out of the box, and held him up flapping and sqwaking for everyone to see. They bid him up to $5 or so. Then he brought up my carrier with the three young roosters and the white cochin hen who has been laying weird eggs, and he pulled them out and held them up for all to see – I think they went for $3 each. Then the last carrier had 6 of the 4 week old chicks from my incubator batch. I picked out the ones that I felt confident were roosters. No point in feeding them for another month or two if I could get someone else to take them. And someone else did, for $2.50 a chick. So my animals brought about $32, and the auction house will keep a piece of that. They said they’d send a check if I didn’t want to hang around and wait for it, and the long line of people waiting to pay told me I didn’t want to wait for it.

We left shortly after my lots were through. It was already heading for 3pm, and Martha had a dog walk to go do. We went outside and located my carriers and got the runner to put the birds in one of their cages which was empty now, so i could take my carriers home. Martha said it would be interesting to come again sometime, but to drop off the birds early, so they could be in one of their cages, then come back later to see the auction, or stay late enough for the sheep/goats/pigs next time. It was an interesting experience. I’m not sure if I’d want to do it again.

Update: I got my check 2 days later! My birds sold for $38 and change, they kept $11 for their commission, so I got about $26 back. Not bad, that will pay for 2 bags of feed. I wish I’d known how this worked before I resorted to giving away all those big roosters earlier this summer.

Plus my hens are so much happer with all those extra roosters gone, I got two eggs this morning – yay!

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Field of flowers

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, farm, navi3 Comments

Our pasture is full of wildflowers, or as I like to call them, invasive weeds. It’s all a matter of perspective. They’re pretty, but if you don’t keep them under control the county will show up and talk to you about it. So I mowed about a third of it the other day, then let the dogs out to play for a bit before I finish the job.

Barclay

Navi

Navi

Navi walked all around the field with me, then waited for Barclay to catch up. He kept stopping to dig up field mouse holes.

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Crazy morning!

On By stefrobrtsIn 2010chicks, barclay, chicken tractor, chickens, farm, navi, pets2 Comments

This morning was exceptionally active, and much earlier than I’d have liked! Sorry, no pictures, for obvious reasons. It started off at 5am when I was woke up by the visiting roosters. The roosters are ones that were hatched out of eggs from my flock by a neighbor in town, and of course the roosters had to get out of town when they started crowing! Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find homes for them, and you can’t have that many roosters in one place without fighting, so they are scheduled to end up in the stewpot pretty soon, as soon as I can get the guy out to butcher them. They’ve had a good life so far at least, but their ultimate destiny is to be meat. This has been a terrible year for roosters, everyone is overrun with them. This lady got 4 roosters out of 6 eggs, our splash chicks appear to be 7 roos out of 10 chicks. It would be nice if it would have skewed towards hens instead!

So at 5am I got dressed and went out and caught the four of them from the pen I had left them in last night, put them in a dog crate, and put the crate in the chicken shed. Once they were in the dark shed they went back to sleep. Unfortunately when I walked over to the shed I spotted something else out of place – my four little splash chicks had escaped the chicken tractor and were running around the back field.

I spent the next 45 minutes trying to gently coax them back into the tractor, but ultimately ended up getting the net and catching two of them that way. The other two ran off and disappeared into the blackberry thicket. That was disappointing, because I am supposed to take them over Sunday to give to a friend who has their other 6 siblings, and I would like to take her all four. So I let the dogs out to play for a bit then went in and went back to bed.

A couple hours later I got up again and went outside and found the two stray chicks hanging out by the tractor, so I got the net and managed to get one of them, but the other one disappeared into the bushes again. Since I figured she’d be hiding for a couple hours after all that drama, I let the dogs out to play and got back to my morning chores.

A bit later I was in the kitchen preparing a crock pot full of carnitas, all chicken drama forgotten, when I heard squawking and fussing outside. I ran out to find Barclay had the chick pinned, and Navi was bounding around trying to help him. I’m sure he would have eaten the chick, he just hadn’t decided where to start! I ran over, telling the dogs how good they were for catching the chicken, and scooped her up and rushed her inside. Dave pushed the dogs out of the bathroom and we set her on the counter and had a look at her. Surprisingly, she seemed none the worse for wear, with just a little blood from a couple broken feathers. I put her back in the tractor and she seemed happy to see the other chicks, and when I checked on them an hour later they were all running around like they hadn’t had the adventure of their lives this morning!

After all that, I was happy to grab Barclay and go to work where it is peace and quiet!

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Scythe

On By stefrobrtsIn farm, outdoors3 Comments

I got a new toy, I found a scythe on CL for $25. I’ve always wanted to try one.

I used it to clear an area of tall grass out at the edge of the yard. From where I’m standing taking the picture to the bush, and about ten foot wide – the grass was knee-high. You can see the pile of grass I cut up.

The scythe is an interesting tool. It’s still used in Europe for cutting grass, and the European models are supposed to be much nicer, lighter, and more efficient than the American version. Mine is heavy and clunky, the handle alone is a 3 inch round piece of heavy wood. It’s tiring on the arms. The European models have aluminum handles for light weight, and long razor-sharp blades. I am having trouble finding a place to buy a whetstone to sharpen my blade with. When I called the garden center the guy took a second to even figure out what a scythe was! So it looks like I’ll be ordering something off the net.

Best of all it never runs out of gas on you and strands you at the farthest point from the house, like lawnmowers occasionally do…